


The City and the Sea

by ThirdCoastNights



Category: Original - Fandom, Original Work
Genre: Awkward Dates, College, Cute, F/F, Falling In Love, Flirting, Fluff, Fluff and Mush, Gay, LGBTQ, LGBTQ Female Character, Lesbian, Lesbian Character, Love, Mushy, Original Character(s), Romance, Romantic Fluff, Sea, Students, University, city, original - Freeform, romantic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-05
Updated: 2020-12-26
Packaged: 2021-03-09 18:54:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 20,175
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27891103
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThirdCoastNights/pseuds/ThirdCoastNights
Summary: Ev is an outgoing girl full of confidence and surprises. Jess is newly out and finds her self falling madly for Ev after finally agreeing to go on a date with her. From slow beginnings to a beautiful future, these two fall deeper for each other by the minute. Get ready for nervous romance and lots of fluff.    -ONGOING WORK!-
Relationships: Ev/Jess
Comments: 2
Kudos: 4





	1. Part 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys. This is my first time attempting to write something and post it on here. I'm still learning how to do this so bear with me. I wanted to write something that was romantic and cute and gay where the characters were just in love and happy. I wanted to bring a smile to the face of anyone who read it so hopefully I can get at least one smile out of someone here. I know its cheesy but that's what its supposed to be! I'll be adding more parts to this story as I get done with it so stay tuned. Thanks for reading!

"C'mon it's going to start soon!", Ev yelled as she was hurrying down the theater hall.

"I'm hurrying, the soda only comes out so fast" replied Jess as she laughed at Ev's excitement for the movie.

Once Jess caught up with her, Ev playfully bumped her shoulder saying, "From what I hear, it sure as hell came out faster than you did" with a smug grin.

"Hey!….ugh shut up". Ev smiled at her success in irritating her date. She was helpless against the blushing yet defensive smile Jess got when she was embarrassed; it was as if she was under the impression that if she smiled, it'd help the red in her cheeks go away or something. Ev thought it was insanely adorable. 

The pair had been on five dates together so far, this being their sixth. Since Jess had just come out about two months earlier, she wanted to take things very slow and not rush into putting labels on things, so that being said, they were simply going on dates not "dating". After five dates Jess was hooked though. She couldn't get Ev off her mind and her friends only hyped the potential relationship up more. Things were going better than anyone could have expected, and Jess was starting to really hope Ev would ask for it to become something more than just "dates".

While talking with her friends one night at dinner, her friend Jenna suggested she try dating again (she had gone through a nasty breakup about eight months earlier) and had the perfect girl in mind.

"Dude, you have to give her a chance she's really great! She's about 5'8, same as you, long brown hair, hilarious, blue/gray eyes, what more do I have to say!"

"Hah, maybe you should date her Jenna!"

"Nah, I prefer my dates with an additional bit of hardware, buuut you should! Her name is Evelyn but we all just call her Ev, she's been begging me to try to set you guys up since she met you! Within the first ten minutes of us hanging out she'll not-so-casually ask if you're coming or not. She gets all nervous and excited before I answer her…it's kinda cute, not gonna lie". Jenna went on describing her friend mentioning her major, her pets, brothers, and personality.

This Evelyn girl sounded really great and when Jenna helped her remember when they met a few months ago Jess remembered how pretty and funny she thought she was, plus, Jenna was not the one to call things "cute" or even feed into this type of stereotypical girly talk, so her interest was definitely sparked. She thought it was really sweet that someone was this into her; she was the kind of person who didn't think people liked her very much in general let alone have a crush on her like this.

After some very heavy persuasion and a gust of confidence, Jess had agreed to go on a date with her some time. She didn't need persuasion to try dating Evelyn specifically, in fact she kind of had a crush on her too, she needed persuasion to try dating anyone again and since she had never dated a girl before she was very apprehensive. Jess agreed on the condition that Jenna, without telling her whole life story and still finding a way to "make her sound good", explain to Jess why she was so nervous. So essentially tell Jess that she's bi and has never dated a girl, and that her ex-boyfriend and her ended things in a rough way eight months ago. Jess was sure things would end before they even began thanks to those few pieces of info, however, she couldn't have been more wrong.

When they got seated for the movie they talked for a bit while the trailers played, silenced their phones, and broke out the candy. The pair laughed and shared whispered comments as the movie progressed.

"Dude check out this couple on the left a row down!" whispered Ev.

Chuckling Jess replied, "Ew, I never understood why couples make out during movies. Like, you paid the money, watch the damn movie, you guys can do that all you want later."

"Exactly! You have the rest of your lives to make out but for a hundred and thirteen minutes you can keep your tongues to yourself"

"Also, can you hear the old guy next to me?"

"No, what's he doing?" replied Ev with a chuckle

"He eats louder than my dog. It's so freaking gross"

They both laughed at the situation, accepting the unfortunate group of movie-goers they were stuck with and settled back into the movie. While they had held hands before, it had always made Jess nervous, but this time she found herself reaching to grab Ev's hand almost as a reflex. It surprised her but didn’t stop her or even slow her down for that matter. In the dim light of the theater screen Jess could see Ev smile shyly when she reached under her arm to her hand, comfortably hugging her arm in the process. 

When the movie ended, they gathered their trash and headed toward the door.

"After you mademoiselle" said Ev swinging her arm out inviting Jess through the door

"Merci beaucoup, mais une si belle femme ne devrait pas etre tenue la porte" said Jess walking through to grab the next door, surprising the shit out of her date in the process.

"Ummm,,," chuckled Ev, "you didn’t tell me you spoke French… I have no clue what you said but it sounded… awesome, to say the least"

"Oh I don’t really speak it I just took it in high school and I guess some of it stuck" replied Jess with a grin. She was happy with herself for impressing Ev. ‘One-point Jess’, she thought as they made their way out of the building.

Once they were outside Ev picked up Jess's hand again as they walked toward the train, playfully swinging their arms back and forth. While they were talking Jess noticed that a child from the family walking a few feet ahead, had dropped a stuffed penguin on the sidewalk.

"Be right back", she said as she hurried ahead to catch the family before they crossed the street. She bent down to the kid and handed the toy back with a smile; the mother thanked her profusely and she ran back to Ev who was watching with a smile from a bench nearby.

"Sorry about that" she said with a laugh hoping Ev wasn’t irritated that she had just run off on her like that.

"Don’t apologize weirdo, that was adorable" Ev replied, chuckling. "You're really racking up those brownie points today aren't ya miss French speaking good Samaritan"

"Nahhhhhh" she responded with a playful smile and a dramatic wave of her hand. The girls laugh as they found spots on the train.

Jess immediately texted her friend as soon as they sat down;

== Jess: omg she's freakin great. On our way back now, should be home by 12

== Jenna: wow I can hear wedding bells already y'all are nasty

== Jess: oh shut up and you know we're cute af. I really like her dude, I kinda hope this actually goes somewhere

== Jenna: :p ew then I have to deal with more of you guys texting me about how great the other is. You spoke French?? You're so fucking cliché

== Jess: wait she texts you saying I'm great lol awe…WAIITTT SHE TOLD YOU ABOUT THAT ALREADY WTF

== Jenna: HAH! Yeah lol like two minutes ago lol you guys are exhausting, I’m going to go back to studying now

== Jess: ugh you suck, but youre also the best thank you thank you thank you <3

Once the girls got back to campus Ev invited Jess up to her dorm for a game of chess and a cup of tea, as usual after all of their dates. It came as a surprise to both Jess and Ev when they first met to find out Ev's dorm was six floors above hers. They had never seen eachother in the building before but then again, the building was huge.

"What'll it be today, green or Oolong?"

"Oolong please", Jess replied with a flirtatious smile

Ev looked at her with a gentle smile, a look that lasted a second longer than normal, just long enough for Jess to notice and make her blush a bit.

"Do you know how long it takes to brew Chinese tea?" asked Ev with a raised eyebrow.

Jess chuckled, "No, how long does it take?"

As she went back to making the tea Ev responded with a jokingly serious "I don’t know exactly but it does take oolong time".

They both laughed and Jess made fun of her bad joke asking if she came up with it on her own to which she answered with a proud "Yes, yes I did"

"You're very clever Miss Evelyn…unfortunately you're not clever enough to notice I took you're Queen and you're now in Check"

"Shit!", she said running back over to the coffee table and pillows they had positioned on the floor, being careful not to spill the tea. "How did you even do that?" she said as she moved her knight into a trap.

"Check Mate", Jess said smugly. She loved the fact that she could beat Ev at chess, she hardly ever beat any of her other friends since they had all been playing since they were young.

"It is so not fair that you're so good at stuff!"

"Okay one, that’s very general and two that’s very inaccurate, Jess replied

"Common, you play guitar, you play piano, you play chess, and you're insanely smart and absolutly gorgeous. I don't know how I got lucky enough that you said yes to going out with me, you're way out of my league."

Jess could tell Ev wasn’t being as joking as she usually is. The shy, downward focus of her eyes and involuntary fidgeting was a dead giveaway. Jess wasn't used to seeing this side of Ev, usually she was very forward and confident but occasionally she'd show her softer side. It made Jess more comfortable when she got like this since Jess was pretty introverted and shy herself. She found it sweet and endearing but also kind of sad since she never felt worthy of the praise.

"No way!" she responded with a chuckle, "YOU are out of my league! You are brilliant, hilarious, athletic, confident, you can dance, and you're honestly the most beautiful girl I've ever seen and I genuinely can't figure out why you even had a crush on me; especially since I just came out like two months ago and am still getting used to the whole 'openly bi thing' which just makes me super awkward all the time, more than I already am", she said with a shy chuckle and noticeable embarrassment.

The pair smiled at eachother shyly, simply accepting the compliments knowing that the other would fight them on every word if they insisted the statements were true.

"…You have no clue how fricking happy I was when Jenna told me you were bi… I think I might have screamed a little", she was laughing at the memory and Jess could tell she was trying to diffuse the conversation a bit. Playfully, Ev continued, "The perfect girl, AND she's into girls… dude youre legit a lesbian's dream come true. You think they're straight but then God hears your prayers and boom everything is right in the world again". Both girls were laughing now, thanks to Ev's dramatic representation of what she claimed as "the greatest gay moment of her life".

== Jenna: hey where are you at its like 1 am and we have to get the room cleaned for room checks tomorrow still, they’re coming at 11am remember!!

== Jenna: wait, you guys better not be fricking!! Ya nasty ass

== Jenna: Helloooo, sorry to interrupt the Mrs, really, but its 130 and I’m tired af and I know neither of us are waking up early enough to clean

"Oh shit, I totally lost track of time… ", said Jess as she was checking her phone, "…Jenna's been texting me for an hour now. Shit, shit, shit"

"Oh crap yeah same here, ok let's get you back before Jenna flips her shit"

== Jess: "so sorry on my way now"

== Jess: " and get your mind out of the gutter, we were just playing chess and talking like usual weirdo. We haven't even kissed yet wtf lol"

Jess grabbed her jacket off the back of the chair and walked to Ev who was holding the door. Once she locked the door they headed toward the elevator. There was slight awkward silence between the two, which never usually happens. They had managed to become friends quickly that if you didn’t know better, you'd think they'd been together for years, so awkward silence was a thing that was making its first appearance in their relationship. Jess's mind was running rampant with excuses for the quiet and the fact that she could tell Ev was uncomfortable too only made things worse. The one thought that kept coming back to Jess's mind though, was that Ev was planning on kissing her once they got to her floor, but Jess kept shutting the idea down.

"No way….", she thought, "…it's been six dates and it hasn’t happened yet, maybe I stink or something. Ugh I don’t know. Especially with this freaking weird silence thing that’s happening right now whatever she's thinking it can't be good. Damn. Why do I even care, I didn’t even want to start dating again in the beginning and I sure as hell didn’t want to like her this much but here we are I guess. Shit… it'd be really cute if she did, she won't, though the fact that we haven't spoken the entire elevator ride down has made it pretty clear whatever romantic mood we had there for a minute is gone now. Ugh, whatever, I guess. Oh well…"

At this point, the elevator was stopping and as they stepped out Ev grabbed Jess's hand. Jess's heart raced a little, sensitive from her previous contemplations. They headed toward the room.

"Did you have fun tonight?" Ev asked, clearly sensing the need to break the silence at least once before they arrived at room 1213.

"Of course I did! It was amazing as always; you're amazing", replied Jess smiling gently hoping it would help express how sincere she was.

"Good, I'm glad" Ev was now smiling back and the tension between the two was beginning to lesson. Jess noticed and grew hopeful for her goodnight kiss as they arrived at their destination.

They stopped and Jess started digging around her purse to find her key. When she looked back up again Ev was smiling at her affectionately.

‘Oh boy here we go…’ Jess thought.

"Goodnight beautiful", said Ev, kissing her on the cheek. When she turned away their hands stayed together as long as possible, falling only when she walked away.

Jess let herself in her dorm room, walking right to her bed where she proceeded to faceplant letting out a loud "ughhhhhh"

"What's wrong with you", inquired Jenna

Speaking with her face still in a pillow Jess responded, "she still hasn't kissed me but she was so close and I really thought she was about to and there was this weird silence and I like her so much and I kinda miss her already and she's perfect and I'm sorry I'm so late and just ughhhhhhhhhh"

Jenna stood there feeling mostly sympathy for her friend then reached over to her foot and pulled her out of bed saying, "Common love bird, we gotta clean", hoping to get her mind off of things.

The next morning Jenna had invited her their friends over for breakfast. When Jess woke up at 11:30 the RA had already come for the room check and everyone was there already; two were sitting around talking and one cooking. Jess didn’t know they were coming for breakfast, but she didn’t think much of it. She got out of bed, put on a sweatshirt, and checked her phone. A big smile grew across her face and she raced out of her room to find her friends.

"What's with you, smiles?", asked one of the girls.

"Guess who just sent me a long ass, adorable 'good morning' text…", replied Jess smiling ear to ear.

In response, she received a unanimous and genuine "awwweee".

"What does it say!?"

Tossing her phone to her friends she said, "Here look, I have to go take a shower, I'll be right back".

== Ev: Good morning beautiful. I hope you slept well last night; I could hardly sleep but it was only because I was so busy thinking about you. I guess reality is just better than my dreams now. Anyway, I'm sorry if last night ended weirdly, I got caught up in my own thoughts. I hope it wasn’t too horrible an ending to a great night. I'll make it up to you I promise! In fact, if you're free tonight I have an idea I think might just do the trick. Hope the text didn't wake you up but then again, it’s not like you really need beauty rest ;)

While Jess was in the shower, she could hear her friends all giggling and talking about the text, though she couldn’t make out what they were saying. When she got out breakfast was on the table and she quickly got dressed and joined the group.

"What do I say back?", she asked.

"Well for starters say good morning back to her idiot, then, say something along the line of 'hell yes my love of course I will join you for another evening of sappy romantic shit and awkward tension' then ya know, play it cool, don't be too desperate.”

The group laughed at Jenna's dramatic response.

"Idk though, we've gone out twice in a row now, maybe I should say no this time and just say we can do it Wednesday or something."

"NO!!" they responded in unison.

Awkwardly chuckling she said, "Geez, cool it, fine I'll say yes…". Jess wanted to say yes anyway so she didn’t really need much convincing. She also never noticed how "into this relationship" her friends were until now, she found it cute and encouraging.

== Jess: Good morning to you too gorgeous! That literally made my entire day lol you're too sweet! No worries about last night either, I was caught up in my own thoughts too so I barely noticed so no need to make anything up to me ok, I am free tonight though if you want to hang.

== Ev: Great! would you be free to meet up around 6:00 when I get off work?

== Jess: Sure, 730 sounds great where are we going?

== Ev: It’s a surprise! Can't tell sorry. ¯\\_(ツ)_/ ¯

== Ev: I will say though, you have to dress up pretty fancy and that’s all I'm saying. Gtg my boss is going to yell at me :/

"Guys she's saying it’s a surprise and won't tell me where were going and that I have to dress up. Ughhh she's too much", said Jess smiling ridiculously. "Jenna do you know anything?"

She replied with a shrug, "Nah dude I have no clue".

While they finished their food the girls all talked about the upcoming date and tossed around ideas as to what it could be. All of the excitement her friends had only made Jess's excitement more prominent and by the time they finished lunch, Jess couldn't stop thinking about it. They started trying to find a dress for Jess to wear on the mystery date and while the group started going through her closet, Jenna disappeared to go grocery shopping, offering to take care of it this week since it was Jess's turn to do it.

"I'll be back soon, don't commit to anything till I get back I want to see what you pick out!"

"I promise!", said Jess offering her pinky to Jenna with a jokingly annoyed look on her face accompanied by an eye roll.

Jenna was gone for about two hours and while she was gone the group of friends tore apart Jess's closet looking for the perfect dress for the evening, trying on different combinations of shoes and accessories. Everyone was so excited and the girls talked about how happy Jess was since she and Ev started going out.

"Dude I've never seen you this happy before"

"Really though, she came at the perfect time in your life I swear. You get to get back in the dating world, get your first girlfriend, and you get to have someone to help you through being out for the first time!"

"Right! She's been out for two months and already has a girl. What the fuck"

Everyone was laughing and carrying on, finding shoes and jewelry to dress Jess. While her friends were talking and laughing Jess was keenly aware of how lucky she was and sat contemplating the fact with a gentle smile on her face. She was so genuinely happy for herself, a feeling she really allowed herself to feel previously. Since she came out Jess had been on cloud nine. She felt like she was finally known, really known. She felt like herself for the first time in her life and to add to that feeling, thing had been going really well for her since then. She is doing well in school, her and her friends were all getting along well, she met Ev and things were going amazing…everything was just really good in Jess' life and she couldn't have been more grateful.

The group had narrowed it down to a form fitting navy blue dress with a lace flower pattern and a halter neckline, a cute blush colored dress with a form fitting V cut top portion and loose skirt, and a black dress which had a cut out back with a strap over both shoulder and two on either side of the torso with a loose skirt portion. They couldn't decide between the three and waited for Jenna to come back and make a final decision.

When Jenna arrived, the girls helped her unpack the groceries but told Jess to go get the outfits together so show Jenna. After the groceries were done, Jenna came into the bedroom to see the dresses the group had been telling her about.

"Hmm, this is actually a really hard decision. You look great in all three and I think Ev would think you were drop dead gorgeous in any of them. I think though you should go with either the blue or the black though. Since you have no clue where you guys are going the darker colors would be better, I think."

After about two minutes of deliberation Jenna finally said, "…I think you should go with the black one."

Once the decision was made the girls were able to relax a bit again and focus on some things they had to get done for school. They worked on homework till about 4 and reconvened once everyone was done. They all sat around, snacked on some hummus Jenna bought, and talked about what was new in everyone's life. One of the girls had gotten the job she applied for, one had started talking to a new guy, and one decided to switch from being a business major to pre-med. The conversation lasted a little over an hour and when Jess realized the time, she began to get nervous.

"Guys I have to go get ready; I lost track of time!"

"Oh shit, yeah, hurry!". They all got up and started cleaning up the food and drinks and Jenna went to help Jess with her hair. She could see she was starting to get nervous and wanted to help her out as best she could and reassure her of how much she would enjoy the date.

"Hey, you'll be fine. You're going to look amazing and you're going to have a wonderful night, don't worry", Jenna said while starting on Jess' hair.

"But what if I'm overdressed or something. We've never been on a super serious date like this before, they've always been like movies or arcades or events at school."

"How could you be overdressed? She TOLD you to dress up all fancy and such so you're fine dude, relax. And as for this being you're first 'serious' date, aren't you happy about it? You clearly want things to go somewhere with this relationship and it looks like things are getting a bit more serious now. She's shared her feelings with me too and I guarantee you have nothing to worry about."

"Wait, what did she say!?", Jess asked, managing to have both excitement and concern in her voice.

Jenna replied, "I'm not saying anything, lips are sealed.", making the zipping motion across her lips to add to emphasis. "I don’t tell her what you talk to me about so I can't tell you what we talk about".

"Ugh you're too good of a friend", said Jess. Her nerves were calming down a bit thanks to Jenna's lightheartedness and the new information.

Jess finished up her makeup so it matched with her dress and Jenna did the final touches on her hair. She came out of the bathroom looking wonderful. The dress fit her perfectly, she had on silver, short, summer heals, and her makeup was mesmerizingly beautiful. Her hair was down and wavy and her bangs swept perfectly to the side.

"Dude… I might date you…". The group laughed.

"You look freaking amazing Jess. Ev is going to lose her shit when she sees you", Jenna said with eyebrows raised.

As the girls were getting some quick pictures, Jess got a text from Ev, it was 5:50.

== Ev: Meet me by the lake. I can't wait to see you!

The text stirred up the level of excitement even more, also prompting the girls to get Jess on her way. Jess was beyond nervous and was dreading the short walk to the lake which would consist of her awkwardly staring at her phone and contemplating all the things that could go wrong as well as wondering what on earth this date even was.

"Okay, text us as soon as you can and tell us everything! We're dying to know where you guys are going", said one of the girls while adjusting Jess' hair for her.

"I will, I promise"

"Alight. Go get her tiger", said Jenna while pushing her out the door.

As Jess walked, she responded to Ev's text telling her she was on her way. She tried to keep herself relaxed and casual as best she could, thinking about her homework and her friends, family even; anything to get her mind off her nerves. She made her way through campus toward the main area near the lake and as she was turning the corner, she saw her. She was sitting on the wall with the lake in the background and her dress moving slightly from the wind. Stopping dead in her tracks, Jess almost gasped out loud. Although she could only see her back and the side of her face for the most part, Jess could tell she looked strikingly beautiful. She stayed at the corner of the building looking at her date for a few more precious moments before making her presence known. When she decided to finally do so it was only in fear that Ev would turn around and catch her starring so she sent her a text to stay ahead of the game.

== Jess: my god you are breathtaking…

Jess was nervous for her Ev to turn around but at the same time she was beyond excited. She wanted to see her face again, hug her, hold her hand. When Ev received the text a few seconds later she raised her head and stood up in obvious surprise. She turned around and saw Jess standing there near the corner of the building only about eight feet away at most. When Ev stood Jess saw the roses she had had on her lap previously out of sight. Jess stepped closer unable to resist the enormous smile appearing on her face. As Ev walked toward Jess the butterflies in her stomach grew stronger, a feeling she rarely experienced. She was smiling ear to ear and as soon as she was close enough, she reached out and grabbed both of Jess' hands with such tenderness it seemed she thought she'd break her if she was any more aggressive with the movement.

"I…I don't even know what to say…", Ev stammered with raised eyebrows and gentle eyes. "…you look… stunning…" Ev handed the roses to her and taking them into her hands, she raised them to her face smelling them and shooting a flirty and adoring look to Ev.

Jess smiled bigger and replied with a quiet and shy "thank you".

"How long were you standing there?"

"Long enough to realize that I'm the luckiest girl in the entire world", replied Jess smiling romantically. "I know its cliché, but you are the most beautiful girl I have ever seen; when I walked up and saw you, you literally took my breath away".

Jess wasn't usually this forward; she was typically much more shy but she couldn’t resist herself. Ev was wearing a wine-colored dress with a cut out back that had two wide, crossing straps and about an inch and a half wide diamond band where the bodice met the loser skirt portion. Her dark brown hair was up into a loose but formal bun with several wavy strands hanging down in the front, perfectly accenting her slender face. Her bluish gray eyes were accentuated by the flawless makeup she had on and her long diamond covered necklace brought the look together beautifully.

Ev smiled after hearing the compliment and blushed more than ever before. She also wasn't used to Jess, or anyone for that matter, being that forward and adoring of her.

"So where on earth are we going", asked Jess addressing the obvious. "It must be really freakin fancy for us to look like this; whatever it is I'm sure it's too much and that you shouldn’t have".

"Psh, nothing is too much for you, you deserve the world. To answer youre question though…it's still a surprise." Ev smiled and winked, knowing the mystery was driving Jess insane. "Come sit with me for a bit, the lake looks beautiful. We're not in any rush"

They sat next to each other, holding hands, talking and laughing for about an hour. Ev was right, the lake was amazing tonight and really made the evening magical before it even really began. When the conversation reached a pause, Ev caught Jess staring at her again.

"Whaaatt". Ev questioned, blushing and hiding her face in her hands.

Smiling Jess responded without breaking her gaze, "Well for one, I can't get over how beautiful you look and two, I can't believe how amazing you are. I don’t know, I guess I'm just thinking about a lot".

"I hope it’s all good things" Ev said. Jess could see the slight concern in her eye but didn't know where to even start with what was going through her mind.

Since they had sat down, and honestly since the movie last night, Jess had decided she wanted to ask Ev to be her girlfriend officially. She knew that people don't match this well often and she knew that she was crazy about Ev. Since she had started dating Ev she was coming out of her shell so much and Ev was helping make her transition into an openly bisexual woman so much easier. Ev had shared stories about how she came out, what is was like for her before and what is was like now, how she met her first girlfriend and what that experience was like, … everything. Jenna had told Jess that she hadn’t even shared some of that information with her and they'd been friends since freshman year of high school. Jess was so incredibly grateful for Ev and wanted to be the one to make her smile and be there for her when she was sad. She just knew she couldn’t let her go. When Ev had asked what she was thinking about the answer would have been this, but Jess had decided at the last moment to just wait till the end of the night to do it.

In response to Ev's statement Jess simply smiled and looked back at the lake, keeping her thoughts to herself for the time being.

"Aw you're just going to leave me without and answer like that? You're such an ass." When she said this, she playfully pushed Jess' shoulder making her laugh. "Come on, we should get going" Ev said, still chuckling.

As they stood up Ev took Jess' hand, kissing the back and bumping her shoulder with a mischievous grin. "We have to swing by your dorm really quick to pick up something that Jenna wanted me to return at a store near where we're going tonight."

"Ok but that doesn't help me figure out where were going at all."

"Good!"

Once they got to the dorm the security guard complimented the ladies on their dresses asking what "fancy event" they were off to tonight.

"I have no idea, she won’t tell me!" Jess replied dramatically. Her and the guard were friends, she liked to read downstairs in the lobby at night sometimes and they had grown to know one another over the year.

The girls got up to the twelfth floor all the while Ev was making jokes about Jess and the guard causing Jess to laughing hard at the absurdity of the things Ev was saying. Ev loved seeing Jess laugh like that.

"Here can you hold the flowers for a sec, I have to find my key." Once Ev got they key out she took the flowers back and unlocked the door.

"Oh my god…"

Stepping into the dorm she was completely speechless. In front of her there was a table with a white cloth over it set for two, candles, her record player was set up in the corner, and there were white Christmas lights on the walls all around the room. On the table there was a warm plate of fettuccini alfredo and beautiful glasses filled with water. The whole time Jess had been slowly walking into her dorm Ev had taken the flowers, put them in a vase that was already out and ready, and set them in the living room allowing Jess to take in the scene.

Wrapping her arms around Jess from behind, Ev kissed her on the cheek whispering, "surprise".

"I…I don’t even know what to say…" Jess spun to look at Ev, still in her arms. Ev's heart raced… but she smiled, took Jess' hand and led her to the table. She pulled out her chair for her and they sat eating and discussing how this master plan had unfolded.

Ev explained, "So I told Jenna what I wanted to do and she basically offered to do anything to make it happen. It was pretty simple really. I can't take hardly any of the credit though, it was mostly Jenna and the rest of your friends who put this all together, I just gave them my ideas and got you here. When Jenna went shopping, she bought all of the stuff and while we were at the lake they cooked and decorated for me. When we left the lake I texted them that we were on their way and they left right before we got there."

Ev was very "matter of fact" with her explanation and Jess could tell she was proud of how smoothly everything had gone. After Ev finished explaining how everything had transpired, Jess sent a text to Jenna, thanking her and everyone for what they had done.

== Ev: I can’t even begin to thank you enough; you guys are so amazing! You all really did a good job at keeping this a secret too! Tell everyone I said thank you a billion times!!

== Jenna: No problem! We love you so much and wanted you to have a wonderful night. Tell Ev not to make a fool of herself lol we worked hard on this thing lol

Jess showed Ev the message and they both laughed. While they sat the conversation went in many different directions. A lot of the things they talked about were more serious but still lighthearted and enjoyable. They covered everything from Ev's two dogs (a German Shepherd named Jax and a Boxer names Coco) to why Jess hadn't come out to her family yet.

"So, I know you've told everyone here you're bi but have you mentioned it to your family yet", Ev ask carefully. She knew it was a somewhat touchy subject especially if the answer was no.

Not looking up at her, Jess replied, "No… I'm not entirely sure if I will any time soon either. My family is extremely conservative and I don’t think they'd take it very well."

"Hey, that’s ok… I mean I think you should tell them eventually but I understand not wanting to rush into that either. Two months isn't very long to have been out and it does take a bit of time to really feel comfortable being yourself out in the world for the first time. If you don't think they’d take it well I'd definitly wait a bit before telling them, that way you're one hundred percent confident in yourself and can fight anything negative they’d say in response to you." Ev could see Jess was slightly ashamed of herself for responding with that answer and wanted to make sure she knew there was no reason to be ashamed. "You'll know when the time is right just like you knew with your friends". Ev smiled helping Jess feel a little better.

"I wish it was just totally acceptable ya know. I'm happy were making strides in the right direction as a society but I feel like older generations aren't changing at all. It's just kind of sad that it can't really be a multi-generational change."

Ev thought for a moment about the right words to say, "It is acceptable to be with someone you care about but people aren't accepting of the fact that not everyone is exactly like them. They focus on differences and don’t see that love is the same no matter what it looks like. People like to label and divide to make themselves feel special and powerful but in reality, they just make themselves more ignorant and unjust. It'll take time for people to see things that way but it will happen eventually."

Jess was comforted by Ev's words and feeling her hand in hers made her not feel as mad at herself as she did. She wished she had the guts to fight her family and make them see her point of view but she knew she couldn't change their mind.

"You're really amazing you know that?"

"Eh, I just have gone through this part already so I know what it’s like that’s all. Hey, sorry for the bummer question, let’s talk about something else. What was high school like for you? My experience was kinda funny but you go first." Ev chuckled as she said this trying to change the mood back to a more positive one.

"Well, it was pretty solid", Jess replied with a small laugh, not knowing what to say exactly. "I was a good student, played volleyball for two years then started working as a lifeguard at a park in the summer and a aquatics center in the winter. I was kind of a teacher's pet and a bit of a nerd, I used to come early to school and help my physics teacher grade papers and always sat in the front of every class; I was in the chess club too. I only got one detention for having my phone out during study hall. I was in one of the plays cuz my mom insisted I do one before I graduated. And I went to one dance cuz I hate dancing…. that’s about it, I was pretty boring in high school."

"Woah, wait… you only went to one dance!? High school dances are like aniconic thing! What the heck!?"

"Yeah, everybody says that but I don’t know, I just hate dancing", Jess replied laughing at the surprised reaction she got.

"WHY DO YOU HATE DANCING!? This is so weird, I know you don’t like dancing but I didn't think you HATED it, I thought you were just shy and didn't dance a lot"

"I mean I am shy, that’s partially why I hate it, also because I'm hoooorrible at it and those two make for a bad combination". Jess was used to this line of questioning from people and laughed at both herself and Ev.

"… you…ugh… we're fixing that at some point!"

"Okkaayyy", Jess said rolling her eyes, knowing that nobody can fix her horrible dancing abilities. "What about you? What was high school like?"

"Well, not too different from you really. I played volleyball, I was a cellist in the orchestra, and took dance at a school near my house. I was also a bit of a nerd too; I competed in this math competition every year, it was even televised…" she said the last part dramatically, making it seem like a big deal. "…hmm what else, oh yeah, I had a job of walking my neighbors dogs every other morning before school…at five AM…it was hell."

"Holy shit! Were you insane or something, why would you do that to yourself!?"

"They were extremely rich and paid me fifty bucks to walk their 'precious angels' four days a week"

"…okay, yeah that’s a good reason…"

Ev got up to put their plates in the sink and came back with two bowls of ice cream covered in chocolate and sprinkles. Jess was surprised and went back to thanking Ev profusely for everything about the evening. The girls continued their date in the dim lighting of the candles and hanging lights. They laughed and shared stories, talked about their personal ideals and beliefs, and joked about their friends and how crazy they were at times. Things couldn’t have been more perfect. Once they finished their ice cream, Jess offered to put the bowls away. When she walked back in the room, Ev had turned on the record player and had a smile on her face clearly stating "told you we'd fix your dancing issue" without actually saying anything.

"No no no no" Jess said sitting back in her chair, " I already told you I don’t dance, EVER". Jess' heart was pounding out of her chest. Just because she didn't dance, it didn’t mean she didn’t want to. This would be the perfect time to and she was all too aware of it. She hated to decline Ev's request.

"Aw common, nobody's here to see you make a fool of yourself other than me and you’ve already done that plenty of times" Ev smiled, praying Jess would take her hand and stand up.

"Ev no, I really can’t, I've never danced with anyone before"

Coming closer, holding both of her hands with a serious yet gentle look in her eye, "…dance with me, just once"

Jess stood, somehow terrified yet perfectly comfortable. Ev walked backwards to a spot near the window, pulling Jess with her. Ev could see how scared Jess was and tried to stay as calm and relaxed as she could.

"Hey look, you're doing great"

"All I've done is walk…"

Laughing gently Ev replied, "Exactly"

"Shut up", Jess snapped with a smile.

"Here just take my hand and put your arm around my shoulder…don't think about it ok, just focus on me."

At first as they swayed back and forth to the soft Jazz in the background, Ev just made silly faces trying to get Jess to relax. Jess giggled and relaxed a bit. The girls danced slowly with the lights of the busy street below and the moon in perfect view. Jess smiled at the beautiful girl in her arms.

Ev looked back at her smiling and said, "Do you know what went through my mind when I first saw you?" Jess shook her head. "I thought to myself, 'oh my god, she's perfect'… then you stumbled on your own shoe and fell into Jenna who appeared to make fun of you." They both laughed.

"Oh my god, you saw that!?" Jess was blushing hard.

"Yes, but it made me think again to myself, 'oh my god she's perfect' and I spent the rest of the night asking my friends about you till Jenna came over and told me about you. I assumed you were straight but when Jenna finally told me when you came out, I lost my shit. I couldn’t get over you, I thought about you all the time, maybe too much. I talked Jenna into introducing us and from the moment we met, I knew that I needed you; everything from your voice, to your eyes, your hair, the way your hand felt when we shook hands, your sense of humor…everything. When Jenna had told me you needed to take things slow and explained your situation I knew I'd be happy if I even had only one date with you, but then we got so close and I wanted to see you again and again. Jess I'm absolutly crazy about you… all I can think about is your smile, your laugh, and how I want to be the person that makes you smile no matter what and how I want to be the one who is there when you can't, I want to be the one who holds your hand during scary movies and out on the sidewalk in front of everyone after, I want to watch tv with you, learn how to play guitar from you, sing with you in the car, run through the rain, and dance with you in the dark…. I… I want to be yours through thick and thin and I promise if you say yes, I will never ever hurt you. Jess, will you be my crazy, goofy, beautiful, gorgeous, girlfriend?" Ev smiling shyly, maintained eye contact with Jess.

Wrapping both of her arms around Ev and smiling ear to ear, Jess replied "Yes" and the two rested their heads together. "It took you long enough…"

Ev pulled her into a deep kiss and Jess' hands moved onto her face. They sunk into the kiss deeper and with more feeling than anything before. They had both waited in agony for this moment and it was as perfect as they could ever have dreamed. They smiled through the kiss, ending the moment with a tight hug. 


	2. Part 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys. Sorry for the delay. Here's part two. There's a lot that happens in this section and it gets little angsty but there's still plenty of mush. Hope you like it!

That night the pair had fallen asleep on the couch while they were talking. Ev had woken up several times throughout the night and was pleasantly surprised each time when she found Jess still in her arms.

"Damn this girl is a hard sleeper", she thought as she shifted carefully, trying not to wake her.

Each time Ev woke she laid there deep in thought. Everything that could possibly cross her mind that night did. She thought about how beautiful Jess looked, how lucky she was, how excited she was to tell her friends, date ideas, how she had to be careful not to rush things, and how she wanted to have Jess meet her family someday. This last one stuck in her mind for a while. She ran through scenario after scenario, imagining how Jess would act and how her parents would act. She knew that she herself would simply be a proud and doting girlfriend the entire time, excited to have everything she cared about in the same room at the same time. She smiled at the thought as she fell back asleep.

In the morning, Ev woke up slowly, tired from the restless sleep she got last night. She had slept poorly not for any reason other than she couldn’t stop thinking about the events of the night and the possibilities for the future. Reality, really, was better than her dreams. She was simply just too excited to sleep well. When she finally opened her eyes and stretched, she was surprised that Jess was no longer laying on the couch, in fact she was nowhere in the dorm. Ev looked around and listened for any sound but she knew Jess wasn't there. Defeated, Ev sat with her head in her hands feeling utterly destroyed.

"I don't understand…", she thought, "…the night went so well, how could she be gone. Maybe I said something wrong, maybe she noticed I didn't sleep much and misunderstood…". Ev's mind raced and was unable to come up with any legitimate explanation for Jess leaving other than the thought that she just scared her away. "She wasn't ready, I shouldn't have assumed she’d be ready, she said to take things slow and I asked her to be my girlfriend so quickly. Everything was going so well, wasn’t it?"

To Ev's complete surprise, when she blinked a tear rolled down her cheek. Ev never cried, never. She always kept her composure and kept it together but she hadn't felt this vulnerable in a while. She was somehow okay with it. She was astonished. In her surprise, she quickly stood up wiping the tear away only for it to be replaced by two more. She adjusted her dress and walked to a mirror in the other side of the room to fix her hair, refusing to look at her own face.

Just then, the door opened and Jess walked in, a cup of coffee in either hand. Ev wiped the foreign tears from her eyes quickly.

Turning around to shut the door she said, "Oh sorry I didn’t think you'd be up yet since we stayed up so late last night, I ran out to get coffee since Jenna apparently forgot to pick up more K-cups."

Ev was more relieved than she'd ever felt in her entire life; all of the thoughts she had in the past five minutes had vanished. She let out a sigh and replied, " Thank you so much, I could definitly use some coffee right now!" She tried to sound positive and perky but her voice shook slightly as she spoke thanks to the adrenaline rush was coming down from. Jess notice and sat the coffee down.

"What's wrong? You kind of look and sound like you just saw a ghost or something." Jess had a worried look on her face that made Ev's heart melt a little. She prayed she never had to see Jess look so sad again.

"Nothing, beautiful…", she kissed her cheek and smiled, "…just a bad dream, that’s all…everything is better now though".

Jess smiled back saying "okay" and gently kissed her.

Cheerfully, Jess said, "Come on, have some coffee, you'll feel better."

Ev smiled back. She was finally able to believe it; her wildest dream had come true.

The couple sat at the counter and drank their coffee, talking about their plans for the day and who they were going to tell first. While they were talking Jenna walked in and coming into the dining room with a raised eyebrow the jokes began.

"Well if it isn't the two cuddle buddies. I came home last night around 3am to find my two best friends asleep on the couch in eachother arms and decided to go sleep back at the other girl’s dorm where we were all hiding out last night. Nobody expected y'all to sleep together on the first night, goddamn." She spoke with a playful tone knowing each well enough that nothing happened but still hoping to make them both uncomfortable. She loved irritating them, it was her favorite pastime. Jess laughed and slapped Jenna's shoulder as she walked past to go charge her phone. Ev blushed hard and continued drinking her coffee, hoping Jenna wouldn’t notice. However, Jenna did notice but instead of making fun of Ev like she expected, she just smiled at her with a slight head nod, expressing her happiness for her close friend. Ev smiled back shyly. 

About a week had passed and all of their friends new about the new couple. Everyone was so happy for them. They told the romantic story of how Ev had set up the dinner and danced with her and how they ended up talking and falling asleep on the couch. People couldn't get enough of it. Unfortunately, the following week had been pretty busy for the girls, everyone seemed to be giving tests that week and they were only able to hang out for a few hours at a time and only went out on a "real" date once during the week. Jenna and Jess had also been busy trying to set something up for Ev's birthday which was Sunday; all the stress was really calling for a fun yet relaxing weekend. Ev wanted to keep it small but she knew her friends better than that. The girls had decided it'd be too hard to keep the party a secret since the only mutual friend between the two groups was Jenna. Ev was helpful and offered to get her friends to come over on Saturday while Jenna and Jess took care of gathering their group.

" You guys really don't have to do anything big, I just want to spend time with my friends and my girlfriend and relax, nothing fancy."

Ev was met with an irritated look from Jenna, "Dude, you have a lot of friends, I don’t even see how it can be a small party if we tried!"

"I mean close friends, you guys", Ev replied, gesturing to the four people in front of her.

"Nope, sorry, you're having an actual party", Jess said, kissing her on the hand with a 'matter of fact' smile. Ev caved, “it’s not fair that you’re so cute you know that?!”.

That Saturday was hectic but fun. Ev got to the party after work and was genuinly shocked by how many people actually showed up. She searched the crowd for Jess and Jenna to thank for her amazing party and when she saw Jenna she started weaving her way through the crowds toward her. While she made her way through what seemed to be an endless living room, she saw Jess leaning against the wall by the window talking and laughing with her friends. Ev kept her eye on her while she walked in her direction, changing her destination from Jenna to her beautiful girlfriend, excited to see her and hoping she wouldn't get lost in the crowd before she reached her. Jess smiled and brushed the hair out of her face when she noticed Ev walking toward her.

"Hi baby…" Ev said, greeting her with a sweet kiss. "Thank you so so much for this party it’s amazing. You guys really didn’t have to do this for me"

"Oh its nothing, you deserve to have some real fun for your birthday plus this week sucked, we all need this I think."

"You're the best. Do you know where Jenna is, I want to thank her too?"

"Yeah she's over there where we usually keep the bean bag I think!"

Giving her one last kiss and an adoring look, Ev thanked her and headed off to find Jenna.

Ev was pretty used to parties having been to her fair share of them in high school but when she got to college, she promised herself she'd try to slow down a bit and was quite proud of herself for keeping that promise. She had only been to two parties other than this one, one of them being when she first saw Jess. Even though she was familiar with the atmosphere, she was starting to feel more and more out of place at them as time went on. She thought of it as a good sign although it made it a little hard for her to enjoy herself at bigger parties like this one. When she finally found Jenna, she pushed her thoughts out of her head and focused on trying to have fun and relax.

"AHHH HAPPY BIRTHDAY BITCHHHH!!!!!". It was apparent that Jenna was already completely wasted. Ev braced herself for the impending aggressive hug.

"Heyyy, thank you so much dude, this party is great. You guys are crazy, how did you even fit this many people in here?"

"Ohhh ya knowwww, just moved some furniture around and such, made it into a big Tetris game in the bedroom."

"Jeez, you guys really didn’t have to do that." Ev chuckled awkwardly. She was greatful but also felt bad that they had gone through so much trouble.

"Nahh its nothing…" Jenna knocked back another shot someone handed her, "…duuuudddde try this, this shit is great."

"No thanks Jen, you know I can't" Ev replied, swatting Jenna on the shoulder, understanding her friend's current state of mind and tryingto keep things light hearted.

"Oh my god, I'm sorry, I…I guess I forgot… I feel horrible…" Jenna was clearly angry at herself now. Ev had said that she was perfectly fine around alcohol now; she thanked her extremely disciplined upbringing and playing sports in high school for the insane amount of discipline she had now. Her friends would even joke and call her Sarge sometimes too. Jenna always admired how she was able to find that disciple in herself finally and yet be one of the most laid-back people she knew. It was mind boggling to her and she always looked up to Ev because of it. Even though Ev was cool with alcohol being involved with parties, Jenna had made a point to never let anyone make this exact mistake while also being discrete and now, she herself had done it. She felt like the worst friend in the entire world and Ev could see it on her face.

"Hey dude, don’t worry about it ok. Really. You know me and you know us, it’s not a big deal at all."

"Well at least go get something to drink from the fridge, all of your nasty ass organic tea shit is still in there I think." Jenna was extremly open with her feelings on Ev's beverage choices. It always made her laugh when she tricked Jenna into trying a new flavor.

Giving her the 'mom look' Ev said, "Ok but hey, don't get to crazy ok".

Ev had been pretty open with Jenna and Jess about her high school days/partying days. She first told Jess when they were talking the night she asked her to be her girlfriend. She tried to avoid it but it had come up later when Jess asked why she said her high school experience was 'funny'. Ev hadn't meant it in the humorous way and was hoping it would have slipped though and gone unnoticed. Jess was so understanding and proud of Ev once she explained, that she had cried and hugged and kissed Ev hard. Jenna, on the other hand, had known for a while. When Ev was in high school she had started drinking pretty regularly and after a while it got to the point that her friends, who partied just as much as she did, were worried. At the time, Ev wasn't exactly drinking just because she partied a lot and wanted to let loose, it was sort of the other way around. She was partying to get out of the house and to forget about her insecurities. When she was a junior her problem had gotten to its worst point. Unfortunitly, it all was because she felt like she couldn't come out. She was scared and had no body to talk to about it. Her parents had made negative comments in the past about the topic, unrelated to her, and she was scared she'd get judged at school; it was all of it. Everything you can think of made her feel this way. It had pushed her to a breaking point and instead of coming out she tried to make herself forget it was an 'issue' in the first place. She partied so she wouldn’t be at home where she wanted to be herself but felt like she couldn’t, and at the parties she drank to try to forget who she was. Her friends, including Jenna, had come to her about it at the end of the summer before senior year and, angry at the world, she came out then. It wasn't the way she ever thought she'd do it but when she finished explaining the situation her friends, with tears in their eyes, they hugged her and said they loved her and that everything was going to be ok. Ev didn’t know why she never thought that things would be okay before but when they said it, she believed them and they were absolutly right. She never cried but her heart was so free for the first time in her life.

Looking back on the topic didn't really bother Ev much anymore. She was so happy with the way things were now and she was so proud of herself for changing her life around that she thought of it as a necessary victory rather than an embarrassing close call with defeat. Nonetheless, the thoughts were weighing her down and she wanted to enjoy her birthday party so she pushed them aside and went to find Jess again. 

The next morning Jess had gotten up early to surprise Ev with "birthday pancakes". They were perfectly imperfect and were topped with three candles. Ev woke up shortly after she finished getting everything set up. It was pretty customary for Ev to stay over when the group hung out late at night and Jess was used to her sleep schedule at this point. Jess always woke up around nine at the latest whereas Ev woke up around 11. This gave Jess plenty of time to make her birthday surprise. Ev woke up sleepy and adorable and her first stop was Jess. She always gave Jess a kiss first thing in the morning.

"Good morning sleepy head", said Jess, running her fingers though Ev's messy hair.

"Mooorrrninnnggg". Ev planted her face in Jess's shoulder. "…I'm so freaking tired…."

"Well, I would tell you to go back to sleep butttt, I made something for the birthday girl."

Ev raised her head, arms till around Jess. "What? You didn't have to make me anything, you’re already my greatest gift", she chuckled blushing a little at her surprise, random, honest, cuteness. Ev knew she got sappy when she was tired but typically she thought about what she said before she said it. Jess apparently brought out a more honest and spontaneous side of her.

Jess blushed and playfully poked her in the forehead, "Stop that". Jess stepped aside and revealed the stack of rainbow pancakes behind her.

"Awww, oh my gosh, this is so cute. You're so cute!!! You shouldn't have babe, this is great, thank you."

The rest of the morning was pretty lazy and relaxing. When Jenna finally woke up around one, the girls gave her coffee and cold towel, and she retreated back into her room. She'd get made fun of later for sure.

"Hey, I have one more gift for you." Jess couldn't hide the smile on her face even though she was trying desperately.

"Hey no no no, no more gifts. You made me birthday pancakes already, I'm good to go. Food is the way to my heart and I am one happy girl right now"

"Yeees" Jess chuckled, "This one is the main one, but I'm going to pull an 'Ev' and keep it a secret. Also, we have to be ready to go by 7:30 cuz we have to be there by 8. And you have to dress super casual. Like favorite old hoodie and sweats kind of causal."

"Ummmmm, okkkk, I really have no clue what requires that causal of a dress code but I ain't complaining." Ev was being silly now and hugged Jess hard. 'God I have the best girlfriend' she thought.

They finished up their homework for the upcoming week, went to get lunch near campus and did laundry; their day was pretty full and everyone essentially kept to themselves. Since everyone celebrated Ev's birthday yesterday (or so she thought), they used today to get stuff done. Jess was working on a research paper and Ev was studying for her bio-chem final which was coming up soon. Ev found it hard to focus though, she loved having Jess there with her but when it came to getting school work done, she was a beautiful distraction.

' I'm the luckiest girl in the world…god I really…', Ev cut herself off when she relized where that thought was going. "No no, there's no way I could be…nooo, not already…" She didn't realize the smile on her face even though she was trying to push her thoughts out of her mind.

Jess noticed Ev was staring at her and blushed. "What? Keep studying!"

"I am!"

"No, you're staring, I know they sound similar though…" Jess chuckled. "…what could you possibly be thinking about with that cheesy grin on your face.

Ev laughed and looked back down at her laptop, "Nothing… ".

"No, something is obviously on your mind, tell me" Jess came over to Ev now and was kneeling on the couch next to her poking her in the sides so she'd laugh and give in.

"Nope, my lips are sealed." At this Jess sat on her and ticked her even harder. Jess loved the way Ev laughed, it was goofy and fun yet beautiful and made everything seem okay in the world to her.

"Sto…stop….no, I can't breathe, Jessss". Ev was laughing so hard and Jess was having a blast. Jess paused though and Ev took advantage of the break. She wrapped her arms around Jess behind her back and flipped them both over so now Jess was laying on the couch and Ev was in the perfect position to get her back. They both laughed and Jess was still shocked at being bamboozled so quickly. The laughing dyed down though and the couple ended up just looking into each other's eyes for what somehow seemed like infinity and moments. Ev leaned down and kissed Jess sweetly. She smiled at Jess and got up to get back to studying. Jess sat up smiling shyly. She brushed her hair out of her face and watched Ev type for a moment. Now she was the one staring.

"I have to go shopping real quick but we don’t need much, it'll take maybe an hour tops, then we'll have to get going."

"Ok, let me just finish this then I'll go change out of my pajamas and into my "super-comfy" clothes and wait for you.

They both laughed at the fact that they were changing into equally comfortable clothes and when Jess got up to leave, she let her arm rub across Ev's shoulder as she walked behind her.

An hour later and as comfy as they could be, the pair got on their way. When they got in the car Ev tried, and failed at finding out where they were going. They drive was pretty long and the sun was starting to go down. It had been a gorgeous day and Ev let the wind from her open window blow on her face. It was really quite peaceful, so much so that Ev would have been happy if it turned out that the gift was just them driving around. They drove for about a half an hour and Ev was starting to get even more confused. They were near the pier but there was nothing in that area other than boat docks and fancy restaurants. Neither of which seemed like possibilities especially with the way they were dressed. To Ev's surprise though, Jess pulled into the parking lot for the docks. 

"Wait what on earth are we doing at the docks?" Asked Ev genuinly confused.

Jess just smiled.

"You don't have a boat and I know for a fact that most college students are too broke to rent one. Wait, do you have a boat!??"

Jess just smiled and laughed. "Were almost there. 

Jess parked the car and opened the door for Ev. Jess lead her to the very end of the dock where she swung her arm dramatically motioning to the small boat next to her.

"Yup, I do have a boat actually", she said with a smug grin on her face. She loved that fact that she'd apparently forgot to mention it to Ev before and now her surprise was extra surprising.

The pair got onto the boat and Jess told Ev to wait at the back and disappeared into the cabin. When she emerged she handed Ev a blindfold.

"Here put this on and no peaking, everything will be ready in like ten minutes."

"Umm ok. Babe I really don’t even know what to say, this is all too much."

"Hey stop that, you deserve it. Plus it really isn't that big of a deal for me to be honest. The boat belongs to my family and the other stuff is easy."

Ev got the blindfold on and heard Jess hard at work at something, she couldn't figure out what it was though.

"Almost done", Jess shouted.

A few minutes later she told Ev she could open her eyes.

"Oh my god… I…I don’t know what to say…"

In front of her was a blanket and pillows, with a picnic basket and white Christmas lights strewn throughout the boat. Jess grabbed her hands and lead her over to the blanket.

"You don't have to say anything. Happy Birthday Ev!"

Ev was still pretty speechless and sat down where Jess had told her to.

"You'll have to hang on to the stuff while I take the boat out, were not going far, just far enough to watch the rest of the sunset."

Jess found the perfect spot, anchored the boat and joined her girlfriend on the blanket. From the picnic basket she took out: peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (Ev's favorite comfort food), strawberries, sparkling apple cider and fancy wine glasses, popcorn, and for desert she had bought two gourmet cupcakes. Everything was incredibly comfortable yet fancy. Ev thanked Jess profusely and the two ate their food and talked as the sunset turned into stars. 

Two weeks passed and everyone was getting busy with end of the year activities. The group of friends studied together a lot since many of them were in the same classes and Jess and Ev still hung out as much as they could. Finals were coming up soon and it was stressing everyone out, especially with having to move out before being allowed to move back in for summer classes. As the week began, they were comforted by the fact that the three of them would be done by Thursday, so a day early, and that they were all staying till Saturday. Once the week started, Ev tried her best to be romantic with Jess and decided to do little things here and there for her (Ev's finals were very easy this semester, mostly presentations, whereas Jess had really difficult ones). She decided on Monday that she was going to leave Jess a surprise in her dorm for when she got out of her first exam. Ev woke up early, went to buy a small gift bag and filled it with Jess' favorite candy, KitKats. She fit in as many as she could then hurried to the dorm to pick up Jess and walk to their exams together.

She hid the bag in her backpack and when she got there, she greeted her girlfriend with a kiss. "Good morning, you ready to go?"

"Yup, I just have to put away the stuff in the kitchen real quick then we can head out!"

"Ok, I'm going to check my makeup real quick, I rushed it and it looks weird", said Ev as she went toward the bathroom.

Jess yelled after her as she kept cleaning, "You look fine!" 'Jeez she has no idea how beautiful she even is, she doesn’t even freaking need makeup', she thought.

"Thanks, but you're kinda biased in this regard", she shouted from the bathroom. On her way back to the kitchen she left the gift bag on Jess' bed and prayed she didn't need to go back into her room for anything.

"Ok, I'm ready", and with that the two walked to their respective exams. The first part of "Operation Finals Favorites" was a success.

After their Monday exam both girls had planned on staying home and studying so when Ev got the text shortly after getting back to her dorm she was thrilled.

==From Jess: thank u so much baby, I love the gift. It was exactly what I needed after that god-awful exam. You're simply amazing, thank you!!

==To Jess: anything for my girl :)

Day two was a little trickier due to scheduling conflicts so the surprise had to come at the end of the day. Jess had two finals that day and Ev just had the one in the morning. Jess and Jenna both would be done at 6:45pm, this being their latest final. Jess decided while they were otherwise occupied, she'd go get both of her favorite people a bouquet of their favorite flowers. For Jenna she got a bouquet of carnations and for Jess she got an artsy assortment of lilies. Each had a hand-written note as well:

\---"Jenna,

You're doing amazing this week so far, keep up the good work, only two more days to go!! "

\---"Jess,

My darling, you're amazing don't ever forget it! You're doing great so far, only two more days to go. You've got this, I believe in you! Thursday, I want to take you out to dinner and celebrate the end of finals too so finish strong and earn that free food! Jk, I guess you can have the food no matter what lol. BTW, you looked beautiful today as usual <3"

Ev left the flowers at the front desk and when the girls got them, she got a knock on her door. She opened it and was immediately attacked with a hug and a kiss from Jess.

"Thank you so much Ev, you're way too freakin cute for me. I love them so much but you really shouldn't do all of this!

"I'm gonna skip the kiss but I will give ya a hug", Jenna chuckled from behind Jess. "Jess is right dude, you really didn't have to do this, this is so adorable."

"Ah it’s no problem at all. I wanted to give you guys something as pretty as you both are…", this she said with a cutesy grin and folder her hands under her chin, "…you guys have a rough schedule this week and I'm not too stressed about mine so I thought I'd do something nice with my extra time!”

"Well, thank you so much dude, they're great! Now I have to figure out something to get you", said Jenna.

"No no, you don’t have to get me anything in return, I did this just for you guys!"

"Nope, sorry…", Jenna said waving her hand to end the matter.

Ev knew there was no use fighting her on it so she expressed her disapproval with a low grunt of frustration. They ran upstairs to put the flowers away then joined eachother on the couch and invited the rest of the gang to come hang with them for a while. Day two was a success.

The next day Ev figured would be easy and it was. After they got out of their exam she met up with Jess and they had lunch by the lake and relaxed for a while before going back inside. Once they were inside Jess got situated to start working on note cards for her last exam the next day. When she finally got comfortable Ev started the next gift. In the kitchen she was preparing Jess' favorite desert, an ice cream Sunday Ev liked to call "the-best-freakin-Sunday-of your life". When she said it fast like that it always made Jess laugh. Ev smiled when she heard Jess laugh from the other room. It was mundane things like this that seemed to make Ev and Jess the happiest; just being with eachother doing whatever they were doing was enough for both of them. When she walked in the room she sat and ate her ice cream and watched a movie on her laptop with her earbuds in making sure she didn’t disturb Jess. Jess studied and thoroughly enjoyed "the-best-freakin-Sunday-of-her-life" as she announced to Ev when she first tried it. While Ev watched her movie, she snuck glances at Jess; sometimes Jess would look up and they'd just smile at eachother. Ev was happy that she didn’t typically notice though, she didn’t want to distract her. All she kept thinking was, 'I can't believe she can be so beautiful all of the time'. Ev felt cheesy and cliché for thinking the way she did but she couldn’t help it. The girl in front of her was everything she had ever dreamed of and there wasn't a damn thing that would stop her from being madly…constantly in…awe of her.

On the fourth day Jess had an early exam at the same time as Ev. The two met up after and headed back to the dorms.

"Oh my god I'm so happy this is over now. The last one wasn't hard it was just really long and irritating", said Jess as they walked away from the building.

Ev replied, "Aw that sucks, that’s not the best combination of things at all", and bumped Jess in the shoulder.

"Oh shut up, get your mind out of the gutter!" The two laughed.

"So, I have one last surprise for you…"

"Oh really? I want to yell at you but it's hard when you're so cute all the time." Jess blushed a little when she said this. She was being playful but also serious.

"Ah shut it", Ev said chuckling, " we have to go get dressed up a little but nothing too fancy. You technically already know the surprise, we're just going out to dinner but you don't know where."

"Aw babe, you're too much! Wherever we're going I'm paying ok, I don't care how much you fight me!" Jess wrapped her arms around Ev, knowing the romantic kiss would persuade her to agree to the terms of her agreement. It worked.

" Ugh fine but I'm at least covering the uber and the tip alright!" Ev was a fool for Jess' persuasive romantic kisses.

Dinner was amazing and the pair shared lots of laughs and discussed plans for the two weeks they'd be at home. When they got out of the uber they decided to take the long way back to their dorms and walked along the river. The night was pleasant and the slight breeze was refreshing. They didn’t spend much time though considering they both wanted to start packing when they got back. When they got about thirty feet away Jess stopped dead in her tracks and dropped Ev's hand immediately.

"What's wrong Jess? Everything ok?" Ev was extremly concerned. "You look like you've seen a ghost!"

"Those are my parents…"

Ev looked up and saw them now, sitting on a bench waving at their daughter, clearly wondering who was with her. Ev's heart completely sank.

The interaction was cordial and somewhat pleasant however, Ev and Jess were completely preoccupied.

"Hi honey! How are you?" Her mom and dad gave her a big hug. They were excited to see her but Ev could tell her parents were very uptight and strict. They're body language was that of someone who took raising their children as a job and not a gift, not to say they didn’t love their children, but there seemed to just be a natural tension between the three of them, they were 'businessy' so to speak. Ev relized this and knew it'd probably cause issues for this situation later tonight.

"I'm good mom…not to sound rude but what are you guys doing here?"

"Oh we thought we'd come and surprise you tonight. We decided to come stay in the city for a few days before you move your stuff out", said Jess' father. He didn't show much emotion and Ev could tell Jess wasn't that close to him.

"That’s great…", Jess noticed her parents glance at Ev. Ev had to assume she was just as terrified and she was right now, especially not knowing how Jess was going to play this. "…oh! Sorry, this is my friend Ev!" Ev felt the sting like someone stabbed her in heart with a needle but completely understood why it was done. She mentally noted the metaphor and thought it was both funny and sad.

"Hi Ev", said her parents in unison. It was quite unnerving. They each shook her hand and smiled; Ev struggled with reciprocating the smile but managed and shot Jess a quick glance.

"Is Ev short for Evelyn?"

"Yes ma'am"

"That’s a really beautiful name"

"Thank you", she smiled, blushed a little, and looked down. Ev imagined meeting Jess' parents some day and the thought always excited her and terrified her. She despretly wanted them to like her and hoped she could somehow make the fact that their daughter was dating a woman easier. She always imagined bringing them flowers and having Jess calm her down the best she could telling her not to worry. This wasn't at all like that but she was trying her best to make a perfect first impression. Ev was doing great and was feeling a little better after the compliment, though, still scared shitless.

"So mom, we actually have to get going and study for our last exam tomorrow." Apparently, Jess had told them she was testing all week.

"Ok honey, call us tomorrow some time so we can make arrangements for Saturday"

"Ok Mom, love you", Jess was starting to walk away now and Ev followed closely

"Love you too sweetie!" Dad was silent. Ev was both shocked and 're-terrified'.

Ev turned to talk and console Jess but she cut her off and said "wait just keep walking for a sec…". Ev had never heard Jess speak the way she did just now, let alone this entire interaction. She just wasn’t herself at all. She was proper and passive not laid back and quick witted like usual. They got around the corner and they both relaxed again, so to speak.

"Oh my god, I am so so so sorry Ev. I'm so sorry." Ev could see the tears in Jess' eyes glistening in the street lamp. It killed her; she'd never seen Jess cry before.

Ev wrapped her up in a tight hug, "Hey hey, shh, it's ok baby." She gave her a kiss on the forehead and wiped her tears away with her thumbs.

"No its not Ev, that was awful. I don’t know if they saw us together before I let go of your hand and the way my dad was acting was weirder than usual, like he's usually emotionless and cold but this was kind of odd if I'm being honest, my mom seemed to like you alright though but my dad kept glancing at you and it might just be because you're 'new' and he doesn't like new people or cuz he knows and if he does suspect something then I'm screwed but if my mom doesn’t then she might be able to talk him into thinking he's crazy… I could always just get in front of this and tell them both of course but this isn’t the way I would have wanted to do that and…."

"Woah, babe slow down ok, everything is going to be ok I promise. I'm not going to let anything bad happen alright. Take a deep breath ok. " They both took a deep breath and let the quietness of the night and the breeze fill their lungs. "Let's go back to your place and talk about this alright, just relax, panicking won't help anything. Jess looked at the ground and Ev's hands, which were still gently holding her face, made her cheeks poof up a little thanks to the change in angle. Jess looked pitiful. Ev tilted her chin back up to look at her, "Heyyy, its gonna be ok Jess…". She gave her a gentle kiss and the two headed back to the dorm to talk things over and figure out how the situation was to be handled. 

When they got up to the dorm Jenna was in there working on a paper she had to turn in tomorrow.

"Hey guys sup…woah, what happened to you two?"

"My parents showed up outside to 'surprise me' and we may have given them a little surprise too"

"Oh my god! Did they see you guys kiss or something!?"

"No, thank god, they just might have seen us holding hands plus were both dressed nicely and just ugh, this could be really bad. My dad was acting weirder than normal but my mom seemed pretty oblivious. I just don’t get how they couldn’t have seen us, we weren't that far when I noticed them and they were already waving so they definitly saw me."

"Jesus, that’s really rough, How you holding up Ev?"

"I just shook their hands and stood there trying not to look terrified…I don’t know how successful I was at that though. I literally randomly met my girlfriend's parents who didn't know who I actually was and might have outted Jess in the process…"

"You actually did wonderful Ev…", Jess said as she sat down, "…honestly you nailed the whole 'meeting the parents' thing despite everything.

"Thanks…I hope you're right, you know how much meeting them meant to me, I just hope this doesn't end up being as fucked up as it appears to be right now…"

Jenna piped in saying, "Hey, I'm going to give you guys some privacy to talk about this, I'll be in the bedroom procrastinating if you need anything ok. You guys will be fine I'm sure"

They thanked her and she disappeared into the bedroom. While they talked they went over everything that happened during the meeting and Ev asked about her dad a bit more.

"So, I couldn't help but notice that your dad isn't much of a talker."

Jess was obviously slightly upset by him coming up in conversation more than necessary. "Yeah, he uh… he just doesn't see the need to fake pleasantries with people 'he doesn’t know well enough to warrant him being pleasant' and essentially the same thing with my brother and I, he says 'we're his kids, he doesn't have to impress with meaningless chit chat'…"

"Jeez Jess, he sounds like a fun guy"

"Yeah he's something else…I don’t honestly know how my mom and him got together. He's charming but not when he doesn’t have to be and he rarely finds a reason good enough any more. Especially if he suspects something, he'll be even worse…like he was today."

"Well I promise I'll make him like me eventually…its my new mission in life!" Ev hoped the lightheartedness would ease Jess worry a bit and it did but not much.

"Good luck then Ev, he's not one to change his ways."

The conversation moved on and they discussed what the plan was. It was decided that Jess would still keep her secret for the time being and see if there is any more indication that they are suspicious. She wouldn’t come out unless prompted by her parents who she was sure wouldn't have the guts to ask. If concerned, her mom would probably make her dad ask in an awkward family 'sit-down' and her dad would be horrible the entire time. He wouldn’t ask unless his wife made him though, he'd much rather just assume things and cast judgement from the safety of his 'power' as Jess' father. Essentially Jess just decided to play it by ear and hope nobody suspected anything.

Ev could see Jess was getting sleepy and starting to doze during the gaps in their conversation and Ev got a blanket and to cover her. She was getting her things together to leave when Jess asked her to stay. It was different than usual though; she had another message in her voice than the one she spoke but Ev couldn't decipher for sure what it was.

"Stay…?"

"Okay" She flashed a gentle smile.

She crawled onto the couch with her and under the blanket. Jess had her head resting on Ev's arm/shoulder which was wrapped around her and kept Ev close with her arm and leg. They were quiet for a few minutes but both knew the other as still awake.

Jess spoke softly, "I don’t want to lose you because of this…"

"Hey… Jess…"

"I don’t want you to think I'm ashamed of you or myself, I don't want to force you to go back to hiding who you are from anyone…"

"Jess you're not forcing me to hide who I am, I'm choosing to do what ever it takes to be with you. I know your relationship with your parents isn't the best and I know that you plan to tell them some day and even if you never told them, it wouldn't matter to me… Jess, you're the best thing that's ever happened to me… I…I don’t want to lose YOU…especially because of something like this. You have to be strong for either decision; for yourself…for me." Ev was ashamed for having said the last part but it was true. "I'm not going anywhere…"

Jess just squeezed her tighter and they eventually drifted off to sleep.

In the morning Jess' alarm went off but both her and Ev reached to turn it off, Ev wrapped her up tight, as if for dear life, and they went back to sleep. The day could wait a little longer, they both had everything they need right where they were.

The next few days went well for the girls. They got everything packed and ready to go home for the next few weeks till summer classes started. Jenna and Ev stored their things on campus since they live in Los Angeles and Jess had most of her stuff packed to go home with the exception of a few things she stored with Jenna and Ev's stuff. Jess was from Michigan so it was easier to save the money and just take her stuff with her. Everyone was excited to go home and see their family however Jess was nervous for two big reason reasons. One, the obvious situation with her family and two, her brother Eric was coming home from a fifteen month deployment oversees. She had told Ev how excited she was but also how nervous she was. Ev was happy for her, she knew her and her brother were very close and also couldn’t wait to meet him some day, he seemed like a really cool guy. Jess had said he was polar opposite to her; he was a star football player in high school, very outgoing, popular, and crazy smart. He was given scholarships for all of the schools he was accepted to but at the last minute decided he was going to follow his dream of being a Marine and go to school when he was done with the military. It was a shocker to the family but everyone supported him. He ended up getting deployed right out of boot camp and this was now his second tour overseas. Jess had told Ev how happy she was that after the first one he hadn't changed too much. He was still goofy and funny and loved life. She was so greatful for him not changing much but now was terrified his second tour would.

They were all waiting around for Jess's parents to get there to pick her up. Jenna and Ev's flight left around ten later that night so they were going to help load the car.

"So what are you guys going to do first thing when you get home?" asked Jenna

Jess replied first, "I'm going to go lay down in my room, play video games, and relax. I know it doesn't sound eventful but I've been dying to just be in my room back home ya know."

"I don’t know honestly, I was actually going to ask if you wanted to come over and chill on my beach for a bit. I know it'll be late but Mom said she finally put up the lights I was telling you about in the fall. She said it looks great out there."

"Yeah that sounds good to me!"

"Jeez that sounds gorgeous Ev; I always forget you guys have a beach house." She chuckled.

"Yeah, it comes in handy when your parents are both lawyers but it also sucks big time. You can't slip anything past them." The girls laughed and Jenna and Jess could tell they were thinking the same thing.

"Well obviously some stuff gets past them." They all laughed and a few moments later, Jess’ parents pulled up. Ev and Jess were careful to not hold hands while waiting this time. They'd say their goodbyes when Jess went into drop off her key after loading the care up.

"Hi honey."

"Hi Mom"

'God they're so awkward', Ev thought.

Jess's dad was behind the car opening the back door and when he emerged he gave Ev a very unsettling look.

He went to give Jess a kiss on the cheek. "Do you have everything ready sweetie?"

"Yes, its mostly all here there's just a few things upstairs I have to grab still." Ok Jenna and your mom can get the car loading and you, your friend here and I can go upstairs to get the rest.

Jenna piped in immediately. "No that’s ok, I can go up with Ev and Jess and get the rest, I have to grab something from my room anyway too!"

"Yeah honey, stay here and help with the heavy stuff, let the girls all go say bye to eachother and their rooms." Ev was eternally, secretly greatful to Jess' mom for being so clueless and odd.

Jess dad discreetly and with all the suspicion in the world glared at Ev as he walked past back to the car. The man was terrifying and Ev felt genuinly bad for whoever Jess' ex was.

The three girls all hurried upstairs and Jenna tackled the elephant in the room. "Well he definitly suspects something"

Both girls responded in unison, "yeah…"

They got upstairs and Jenna decided to wait in the hall for the to say goodbye to eachother.

Ev and Jess had decided to keep things short and sweet to make sure they didn't get to emotional.

"It's only two weeks then we'll be back here ok, don’t worry." She wrapped her arms around her and gave her a long kiss.

Ev gave her a tight hug. She was trying not to show how emotional she actually was right now. After all it was only two weeks apart. They'd literally be across the hall from eachother in the summer. Jenna and her were rooming together again and Ev requested to be on their floor and the only one left on their floor happened to be a single room right across the hall. 'Get it together Ev'. She kissed her again.

"I know baby, I know" Ev couldn't hide the tear that escaped now and Jess wiped it away with her thumb. 'What's with me lately, I NEVER cry", Ev thought.

"Hey hey, its ok…Ev, I'v never seen you cry before, what's wrong?"

"I know, and nothing, I'm just going to miss you a lot that’s all…"

"I'm going to miss you too baby, it'll only be two weeks though. You and Jenna will have fun being home together and it'll go by quick. Don’t wish for it to go by too fast though, when we get back we have classes again.

"Yeah but I'll have you again too…." Ev was letting it all out; a few more tears rolled down and she was being far more emotional than she ever expected.

Jess hugged her again and Ev hugged back tightly. She was happy to be going home but really just wished Jess could come with her…she had a thought.

"Come to California at the end of the month…"

"Wait, really!?"

"Yeah…I want you to come home with me, I want to show you everything and have my parents meet you and my friends. I know it’s a lot but I…" Jess cut her off.

"Okay!"

"Okay?" Ev was so happy, she laughed and spun Jess around. "We'll be there for the pride parade too if you want to go! All of my friends go and we all just have a blast, its amazing."

"Of course! I've never been to one before, I'm super excited"

They were both smiling and giggling and beyond happy, Jenna heard from out in the hall and popped her head around the corner to see them in a deep kiss.

"You didn't propose did you", she asked playfully.

"Oh shut up Jenna, no, I invited her to come to LA for pride week and to meet everyone and my parents and she said yes!"

"Ayy that’s great guys!! Get ready to meet some crazy people Jess, our friends are somethin else."

They had been up there a while and knew they had to get back downstairs. Everyone was happy again though and it made leaving eachother easier. Jenna and Jess hugged and said goodbye and Ev and Jess kissed one last time. They all turned in their keys and went on their way. Jenna and Ev waited for an Uber deciding to just wait at the airport for a few hours and Jess got in her car and drove away.

After she drove away Jenna looked at Ev who was watching her drive away, "hmm hmm hmm" she said as she shook her head and started walking away. She was smiling.

"What!?" Ev followed her.

"So when are you going to tell her?"

"Tell her what!?"

"That you're in love with her!"

Ev was totally caught off guard. 'How could Jenna know already; I haven't even admitted it to myself yet, though I guess I just did?" Ev was completely off her game now and chased after Jenna stumbling over her words in the process.

"Howw, wait, what no…howdidyou…???"

"Oh relax, I don’t think she knows. I just have known you long enough and I've seen you in love before…", Ev shuddered at the memory, "…but I've never seen you like this. It's a bit soon, I'll admit, but I think its sweet." Jenna was having fun messing with her friend but was also very very happy for her. Her last relationship had left her pretty messed up and the fact that she found someone who could change everything for her was wonderful.

"…Jen, I'm crazy about her…", Ev said as she grabbed her friends arm to get her attention. She hung her head shyly. "I love her so much. I…I'm just scared."

"What are you afraid of Ev? You know how she feels about you…", Ev cut her off,

"I don't though, I have no idea how she really feels. That’s the part that scares me. I don’t know if she thinks its too soon, I don’t know if she really feels as strongly about me as I feel about her, I don’t know if she… I… I thought I would never be hurt by someone and I was wrong. If it happened before it can happen again can't it? There's too many variables here Jenna, so much risk."

"Ev, you KNOW how she feels about you…can't you see it? Can’t you feel how she's different? Jess is really special Ev, I've been her friend since orientation and we were roommates for a year, I know her pretty well and I can assure you she's nothing, NOTHING like Megan. If you can't feel that and know it in your heart then I don’t know if this is such a good idea."

"No, I know…I know she isn't. If I'm being honest, lately I've felt like she does actually love me too, especially the night when we ran into her parents. She asked me to stay and, I don’t know, there was something about the way she asked me to stay. I felt like she was saying it without actually saying it you know. I know probably sounds weird but I don’t know how else to explain it."

"Nah dude I totally get it! I think you should tell her Ev. I'm almost positive that she feels the same way, I see the way she looks at you. She's worth the risk and you know that otherwise you we wouldn’t be having this conversation and the fact that there is no risk other than her saying she isn't in that place yet, is even more reason to tell her."

Ev smiled and blushed, "She's worth everything."

Jenna put her arm around her friend and they sat, "I know." She hugged her playfully and they both smiled and laughed.

While they waited for the uber to arrive they got a text form Jess in their group chat.

==From Jess: God this car ride is so awkward…

==From Ev: Aw I'm sorry, what's going on?

From Jess: Nothing, that’s the problem. Mom asked me some questions about school and what my plans were for the two weeks I'm home, Dad has said like two words to me, and now its awkward silence. I just can't tell if its just the usual awkwardness between us or if it’s the other thing.

==From Jenna: Jesus, that sucks. Just try to fall asleep or something. You'll be home soon enough.

==From Jess: Yeah I probably will, thanks for the idea lol

==From Jess: Hey btw, when do you guys think I should tell them about going to California?

==From Ev: Idk, maybe wait a bit. See how things go while you're there and if the opportunity presents itself then go for it otherwise maybe wait till you get back here.

==From Jenna: ^^

==From Jess: Okay, thanks guys. Im gonna try to sleep, ttyl

==From Ev: Okay, text me when you get home <3

==From Jess: I will :) <3

"God you guys are cute as fuck but you make me sick" Jenna said as she rolled her eyes.

Ev pushed her friend on the shoulder and laughed. "Aw shut up"

The girls' uber arrived and they got on their way to the airport. While in the uber they discussed a lot of the things on Ev's mind which genuinly helped her feel better about some things. Jenna had asked how Ev was doing with not being able to be completely open with their relationship in regards to Jess' parents. Ev had said that although she wanted Jess to come out to them she respected her decision to wait even if that meant hiding it from them for a little while longer.

"I just want what's best for her."

Jenna paused, "You're such a sweet person Ev…"Ev blushed a little and smiled.

She continued on to tell Jenna about how it had stung when Jess had to call her "her friend" and how she brushed it off as best she could. She talked about how terrified she was for Jess when they first thought her parents saw them holding hands and how Ev would have felt at fault for outing her even though holding hands is a two person activity. She was sad and worried and excited and happy and every emotion she could think of. She just wanted Jess to be happy and she was terrified things would play out in a way that would hinder that goal.

At one point Jess had texted them that she was about twenty minutes from her house and instructed them to call her when they landed and their plane took off shortly after. The old friends then went on to speak of love, perfection, hopes, fears, the future, and when they were finally on the plane the inevitable "past" came into conversation. Ev had seen this coming the moment Jenna had mentioned her name while they were still at school and had tried to avoid it as best she could.

" How are you going to handle Megan?"

"…I don’t know yet I guess. I have absolutly no interest in ever seeing her again. I never want to speak to her or hear about her or anything."

"That'll be kinda hard don’t you think; considering you guys live on the same street and all…?

"Yeah, unfortunitly", said Ev looking clearly irritated by the thought.

"Well let me know how things go with that for sure. Remember, I'm patiently awaiting your permission to kick her ass." The girls laughed and Ev assured her she'd let her know if it came to that.

Both girls were very excited to be going home and excited to go hang out on Ev's beach for a little bit later tonight. Ev couldn’t complain about anything at the moment and Jenna felt that same. They were both very happy to be going home to see their family and friends and knew they'd be flying back at the end of the month for pride week since it was a tradition in their friend group since Ev came out. The flight went smoothly and once they landed and headed outside Ev called Jess like she asked.

"Hey, we just landed."

"Oh good babe, *yawn*, how was it?"

"The flight was great, we slept most of the way too!" Ev could tell she woke her up with the call and tried to keep things concise so Jess could go back to sleep. "You sound like I woke you up, I can let you go so you can sleep if you want."

"No, no. Its okay, I want to hear your voice" Jess chuckled. Ev had to admit, Jess' sleepy voice was freakin adorable but it made a pang of emotion come over her and she missed her like crazy again.

"Okay baby, I'll stay. I'll have to let you go when we get to our cars though. What are you up to right now?" Ev could hear her rustling.

Jess chuckled , "I'm just makin some tea and snacking when I shouldn’t be snacking as usual."

"Ah that’s the best time to snack though! Its like what, 12:40 your time right?"

Jess happily replied "Yup" and made Ev laugh. She apparently was proud of the fact that she was awake and snaking in the middle of the night. Jenna was making faces at Ev at this point too and keep holding up a heart sign and bumping her in the shoulder which both made Ev feel all warm and happy inside and made her want to smack Jenna and make her stop. They talked for about five more minutes then Ev wished her goodnight and got ready to see her parents.

Jenna spoke as they approached the door, "You know they're both going to freak out when they see us and that we'll be completely interrogated about our semester the whole way home right…"

"Yeahhhh…."

They crossed over the threshold and faced the bombardment of hugs and questions from their parents. Ev's mom jumped a little and ran to give her daughter a hug while Ev's dad waited then gave her a big hug and spun her around asking how his "little girl" was doing. Essentially the same occurred with Jenna and her parents as well, both families were good friends and their parents hung out a lot. They basically morphed into the same people since the girls had left for college.

"Hey, I'll see you at my place around 11?" Ev shouted as she got into her car.

"Sounds good!"

Ev's ride home was good, though Jenna was right about the interrogation. Ev didn't mind though, she got to talk about Jess most of the time.

"Soooo, how's Jess???", her mom asked smugly from the driver's seat.

"She's amazing." Ev was shy talking about her relationships with her parents but also was excited to tell them they would be meeting her at the end of June.

She went on to answer all of their questions and completely bragged about her. She was so proud to be her girlfriend and she really showed it during this car ride.

"You sound so happy Ev; I don’t think I've heard you talk about anyone this way before!"

"You're father's right sweetie, you sound great, hell, you even look different!"

"I don't know, I guess…she's just really special…"

Her parents smiled and went back to inquiring how the rest of their daughter's semester went.

The first week went well for the most part. Ev got to see her friends and hang out at the beach most days. Her mom and dad both had to work but she didn’t mind the alone time during the day. She got to see her sister and brother a lot and her nieces and nephews as well. The only downside to being home was having to live on the same street as her Ex, Megan. The first morning she was back they both saw eachother on the street while Ev took her dog for a walk. Megan was just pulling in her drive way, presumably from the gym, and Ev was walking past her house. Ev paused a little since she hadn't expected to see her, though she should have remembered she'd just be getting back from the gym at this time. Megan did a double take as she pulled her car into the driveway, also seemingly caught off guard. Ev hurried past before she could get out of her car.

'God that just ruined my day and its barely has even begun yet', she though as she shook her head to herself.

Unfortunitly this wasn’t the only time the ex’s ran into eachother. It happened roughly once every day after. The unfortunate result of living in a small, close knit part of town. One of the worst instances was when Ev was out with Jenna at the mall. They had been looking at some clothes when Jenna looked across and saw Megan and some girl at the entrance to the store they were in.

"Hey Ev…", she said as she nudged her on the shoulder motioning toward the girl.

"Aw shit." Ev rolled her eyes. "Why does she have to be fucking everywhere!! I see her literally every day, goddamn!"

"Hey dude its okay, calm down. Maybe she's stalking you or something", she said laughing at how weird it sounded yet perfectly plausible. "Maybe she's just trying to show off her new girl". When she said this they both looked back to see Megan and her 'new girl' smiling at eachother nose to nose, laughing at something Megan did.

"Ew… they're not even a cute couple"

"I just want to sneak out without her seeing me so she doesn’t get the satisfaction of me knowing I saw them."

They tried to make their way toward the exit from the other side of the store when they noticed the 'new girl' run off to the bathroom and Megan quickly work her way toward where they were. She stopped Jenna, who was behind Ev, but before she could say anything Ev turned around, grabbed her friend's hand, and maintaining piercing eye contact with Megan the whole time, walked right out of the store not allowing her to speak to either of them.

"I'm sorry about that Jen, I wouldn’t have expected her to try to talk to you. You made your feelings for her very very clear when we first broke up"

"NO I wish she would have said something, then I'd have a valid reason to punch her in the face." They both chuckled a little. "I'm serious dude!"

The girls finished up their shopping and headed home, both still slightly mad that she had actually tried to talk to them when she knows neither wanted anything to do with her. When she got home that afternoon, Ev called Jess to fill her in on the drama. Ev made sure Jess knew how much she hated her and Jess did too. She had hurt Ev and therefor Jess was just as mad at Megan as Jenna was, neither could be as mad as Ev of course.

"Wait she actually tried to talk to you guys!?"

"Yeah, she stopped Jenna when we were trying to leave and I just grabbed Jen and left. I have no clue what she could possibly want to say to us, she'll never apologize, and there's nothing she can say to make me forgive her anyway."

"Hmm, that’s so weird. Maybe after that she'll just leave you alone. Both of you clearly made it obvious you don’t want to talk to her so maybe she'll respect that now that she's been reminded again."

"She doesn't respect anything…"

The next week was pretty hectic for both Jenna and Ev. They were getting the plans finalized for Pride with the rest of their friends, getting ready to go back to school, and both had family in town to visit. Toward the end of the week is when things got weird. Ev was in a pretty bad mood this particular day thanks to her little cousins finding her makeup bag and deciding to play "dress up" with a bag full of expensive makeup. Her aunt offered to replace it all but Ev insisted it was alright and she wasn't mad (she was furious). She was forced to go to the store that day and buy new stuff since her and Jenna were flying out tomorrow afternoon. She finished her breakfast and got dressed, minus her makeup which made her feel very causal and not "put together", and headed for the door. As she was grabbing her purse there was a knock. She paused, contemplating who could possibly be knocking on her door at 9 o'clock in the morning.

'Who the hell could….no….no fucking way."

She went to the door controlling her anger in the event that it wasn't her, and opened the door.

"God,…what do you want!?" she said throwing her arm up and rolling her eyes.

"Nice to see you too" Megan said, sounding slightly hurt but expecting of such a reaction.

"I told you back then and I thought I have made it perfectly clear that I DON’T WANT TO SPEAK TO YOU EVER AGAIN!" Ev attempted to shut the door but Megan stepped forward into the doorway.

"Please, just…just listen, if nothing else."

"No, I don’t want to listen, I don’t want talk, see you, think about you, whatever!"

"Ev, I, I'm sorry… please, just listen." Megan had tears in her eyes now but Ev couldn't tell if they were real or not. She just stayed quiet.

"I'm not like that anymore Ev. Things have changed a lot. I can't go back in time and undo everything I did, I've spent years trying to think of a way to and I can't. I loved you so much Ev…" Megan tried to grab Ev's hands but she yanked them away and crossed her arms, "…I, I still do. I didn't think about what I was doing to you back then. I was desperate for attention; I was trying to figure out how to be out with someone who wasn't. I was mad and vengeful at the end for having to work harder to be with you…none of that changed how much I loved you. I was crazy about you Ev, I thought you were going to be the one but I got selfish and pushed you away. I wanted to talk to my friends about you, I wanted to be able to tell stories and be part of those conversations so one day I…just did, I… I didn't think things would have turned out the way they did for you. I didn't know that someone would blackmail you!! God, that’s so fucked up…" she was crying now, "…I didn't know that dragging you to all those parties with me would make you start drinking thanks to the combination of things going on. I thought if I lied you'd stay with me and let me make it right eventually. I thought I could help… Ev when you left I lost a part of me and I haven't felt the same since. I have changed so much, my life is together now, I stopped drinking too, I don’t talk to that person anymore, any of them really. When I saw that you were back all of my love for you came to the surface again, I never stopped loving you but I pushed it deep inside so I could cope…

"You! Cope!? You have no idea what having to "cope" means ! Because of you I started drinking, because of the drinking I had to come out to my friends so I could get help before I was really ready to come out. YOU OUTED ME. You got me blackmailed Megan, you fucked up my life so much. You destroyed my heart. I didn't date a single person after we broke up. How the fuck could I try to love somebody after the last person I loved completely destroyed me!? You were my everythign Megan, we were partners in crime, we were lovers, we helped eachother, we were different together and made eachother feel less lonely. How could you do that to me. It was my one request for you and you couldn’t respect it, you couldn’t respect ME. When you left I relized that everyone has ulterior motives for everything; I don’t, can’t, believe you loved me for a minute, you just wanted attention and thought I'd be a good way to get it. You wasted two years of my life…"

"Ev… I loved you more than life itself. I loved you with my whole soul…"

"You sure had a funny way of showing it!"

"… Please, let me show you that I'm not the same person anymore…" Megan put her hands on Ev's face the way she used to right before they kissed and brushed her hair under her hat. In another life she would have nestled her cheek into her hand but now she stood perfectly still. "You look beautiful without makeup on, you only ever did that in front of me before…you look amazing."

"Don’t touch me.” She grabbed her wrist and moved her hand away. “ I can't believe anything you say and even if I did, I am madly in love with the woman of my dreams who is waiting for me to call her like I promised I would last night when we stayed up talking till one in the morning…" Ev felt herself getting vengeful but she didn’t care, she deserved it for once, "… you have no place in my heart anymore and I'm ashamed for ever giving you one in the first place. You used me, you disrespected something that should never be disrespected, you ruined my life for a while and now I am wonderfully happy without you. I'm sorry you can't see that what you did is unforgivable but hopefully you'll figure it out before you waste your time too much longer. Now if you can get out of my way, I have to go to the store and get ready to fly back tomorrow." Ev pushed past her.

"Wait…you're… you're leaving? I Thought you were on break!"

Ev turned around walking backwards to her car now and put her hands up, "yeah I am…watch!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Part three coming soon!

**Author's Note:**

> Part one done! Let me know if you have any suggestions. I want to improve so let me know what you think :)


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